Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: 2nd Lieutenant H. H. Whytehead, Royal Flying Corps, late North Staffordshire Regiment, who was killed in action in July 1917 while engaged on an offensive patrol in No. 29 Squadron, very probably a victim of Oberleutnant Eduard Ritter von Dostler, a holder of the “Blue Max”

British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut.), together with related Memorial Plaque (Hugh Holtum Whytehead), extremely fine (3) £400-500

Hugh Holtum Whytehead was born at Moseley, Birmingham in August 1896 and was educated at St. Ninian’s, Moffat and at Shrewsbury, where he shot for the school at Bisley. His subsequent studies at Birmingham University, however, were interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, in which month he enlisted in the North Staffordshire Regiment. Commissioned into the 9th Battalion in January 1915, he served, according to The Roll of Honour, as ‘a despatch rider in London for eighteen months’ - certainly his MIC entry confirms his entitlement to a British War and Victory Medal pair only - following which he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, and, having obtained his “Wings” in June 1917, proceeded immediately to France, where he joined No. 29 Squadron.

His last operational patrol commenced at 9.55 a.m. on 12 July 1917, when he departed No. 29’s airfield at Le Hameau in Nieuport Scout No. A6782, and by a process of elimination it seems probable that he was shot down between Houthem and Hollebeke at 10.50 a.m. by Oberleutnant Eduard Ritter von Dostler of Jasta 6, these being the details submitted by the latter in his subsequent claim for a victory.

Whytehead, who was 21 years of age, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.